Audacity if a free multilingual audio editor and recorder for use in creating and editing a variety of audio files for podcasts and other applications.
Type of Material:
software (tool)
Recommended Uses:
Create audio files to support communication and educational opportunities.
Audacity could be used to provide audio feedback to student work, to create oral journals or records of experiences by students or to create podcasts.
Technical Requirements:
Program can be downloaded to Windows, MAC OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Users who wish to record MP3 files on a PC will also need to download LAME MP3 encoder separately. On a Mac, MP3 files (mono) can be exported without further software.
Audacity would require the user to have a microphone and speakers, although built-in microphone and speakers provide adequate audio.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Develop audio files for stand-alone use or for integration in other projects
Target Student Population:
Educators at all levels and students from grade 3 through college.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Ability to use basic Internet tools, to record, play back and edit sounds.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The site does exactly what it purports to do. It provides good quality audio recording which can be exported in a variety of formats.
Creations of audio are quick and easy and playback provides quick decision-making on quality of recording.
Concerns:
There is no live technical support, so some users might be put off by that.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Audio recordings created through the use of Audacity are easy to save, organize, edit, and use independently or incorporate in larger audio-visual projects. Content and use are only limited by the imagination of the user. Both educators and students can use this tool to produce audio to support learning and to demonstrate learning in any field.
The uses for Audacity are endless. There are a variety of creative approaches that would work for instructors in online classes in terms of feedback to students and the opportunity to create audio files rather than only text files.
Concerns:
None.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Program is easy to download. Each element and screen of the program is clearly designed and labeled making usage largely intuitive and self-guided. However, there are tutorials for use in multiple languages and the site provides additional tips for improving the overall quality of audio productions. Even younger users can have a high quality experience in quickly and easily creating audio files.
There are wikis for support and development.
Concerns:
There is no "live" or email support for the product.
Other Issues and Comments:
This is a good tool that has gotten better through time, use and revisions. User support is good.
Creative Commons:
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